TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final

Monaghan 4-15 Mayo 2-14                                      25/8/12

Monaghan’s senior ladies footballers booked their place in an All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Cork when they beat Mayo in Roscommon on Saturday. Cathriona McConnell was the star of the show, scoring 3-3, while Niamh Kindlon was deadly accurate from frees and impressive midfielder Amanda Casey got the other goal. Wing-backs Therese McNally and Aoife McAnespie also got through a lot of work, while Sharon Courtney gave her usual strong performance at full-back. Cora Staunton kept Mayo in the game for long spells, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Monaghan setting up a repeat of last year’s final.

Although Monaghan fell a point down early on, that was the only time in the game that they trailed, as Cathriona McConnell replied with a goal and a point. McConnell added two points from play in the first half, while Niamh Kindlon converted a brace of frees and Linda Martin made a good double-save to keep Mayo at bay, although the Connacht side did manage scores from Cora Staunton and Deirdre Doherty. Amanda Casey kicked a point, before Caoimhe Mohan came off the bench to win a free for Kindlon to tap over. Monaghan had a strong penalty claim turned down when Ciara McAnespie looked to have been dragged down in the square, but a couple of Kindlon frees had them 1-8 to 0-5 to the good at half-time.

Kindlon and McAnespie hit early second-half points and although Staunton fired to the net to give Mayo hope, a well-worked Monaghan move set up McConnell for her second major. Mayo got a fortunate second goal when a long punt by Aileen Gilroy bounced over Martin and into the net, but points by Mohan and Kindlon kept Monaghan in the driving seat and McConnell then completed her hat-trick after great approach play by Ciara McAnespie. Staunton continued to kick points for Mayo, but Aoife McAnespie got forward to get a point for Monaghan, who all but killed the game off when Casey punched a high ball from Mohan to the net. Mayo got the last few points of the game, but a goal-line clearance by Sharon Courtney ensured that the Farney County had seven points to spare in the end. Monaghan will play Cork in the semi-finals on September 8.

Monaghan: L Martin; G McNally, S Courtney (Capt.), C Reilly; T McNally, N Fahy, A McAnespie (0-1); A Casey (1-1), E McElroy; C McAnespie (0-1), L McEnaney, E McCarron; C McConnell (3-3), N Kindlon (0-8, 7f), C Courtney.

Subs: C Mohan (0-1) for C Courtney (22 mins), E McKenna for Kindlon (59).

Mayo: A Tarpey; A Bell, N Tierney, S Tierney; C Connolly, M Corbett, M Carter; A Gilroy (1-1), C Egan; N Kelly, C Staunton (1-8, 0-4f), F McHale; Y Byrne, S Rowe (0-1), D Doherty (0-4).

Subs: C Hegarty for Kelly (21), A Brennan for Hegarty (46).

Referee: MJ O’Keeffe (Cork).